She will be taking over from Bonang Mohale, who has taken a new directory role at Bidvest.
Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) has appointed Busisiwe Mavuso as its new CEO as of 1 July.
She has been the COO of BLSA since November 2017 and will be taking over from business titan Bonang Mohale, who has led the business lobby group since June 2017.
In a statement, BLSA said that prior to joining the company, Busisiwe was a managing director of the Black Management Forum, having been with the organisation for eight years and having started out as the CFO.
She started her career in the banking industry before moving on to work in fields such as healthcare and telecoms. She has a MBL from the Unisa School of Leadership, a postgraduate qualification in management from GIBS and a B.Compt degree from Unisa.
She is also a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
Busisiwe said that her new role is “an honour and a privilege”. She said that over the past few years, South Africa had been through a very bad period of corruption and malfeasance, partly because business did not provide leadership.
“South Africa is currently in a dire economic position and I’m looking forward to leading business in implementing the necessary interventions to enable us to play a constructive role in the capacitation of the state and the acceleration of inclusive socio-economic growth.”
Bonang said that “Sis’ Busisiwe is younger, cleverer, much more hardworking and tempered better than me. I am personally delighted to be handing over the reins to such an outstanding leader”.
According to the BLSA statement, Bonang is retiring to pursue a life-long dream of becoming a farmer.
Bonang took to Twitter on Wednesday (24 July), saying:
“My last week as BLSA CEO, they have decided to throw me a farewell party later today. I’m grateful for the opportunity having led this prestigious organization over the past two years. I leave the organization in capable hands of a highly competent team. Thank you, South Africa.”
However, he has not completely abandoned his business expertise, as has been appointed to the Bidvest board as an independent non-executive director as of 1 July.
According to a statement released by Bidvest, Bonang will also be appointed as a member of the acquisitions committee, nominations committee, and the social and ethics committee.
Bonang has served in several leadership positions in the private sector and has been lauded and recognised with several awards over the past 25 years. He has also served as the chairman of Shell South Africa, CEO of Drake & Scull FM SA, CEO of Sanlam, executive VP of SAA and managing director of Otis.
“The board welcomes Bonang to Bidvest and look forward to his contributions,” the statement read.
